Page 35 of Missed Communication
“Olivia hired Jamie as a senior advisor.”
“So, you’re going to be his boss? Kinky.”
“Very funny. This is serious! He won’t be reporting to me, but…”
“But what? Don’t tell me he has a little crush on you? How old is he anyway? From what I hear, I’m pretty sure I’m old enough to be his mother.”
“He’s… young,” I hedge. “Twenty-six.”
“Fucking hell, Bree. I get wanting to have a fling while you were in Canada, but you have to know how bad the optics will look if anyone finds out. It’s only a matter of time before you’re showing, and everyone will assume it’s his. Then what? If you break up, he’ll look like an asshole dad.”
“This is why I wanted to talk to you about this. Jamie’s good at his job, and will make a great addition to her team, but Olivia’s lovestruck right now. Her rose-colored glasses are making it hard for her to see what a terrible idea it would be for me to date him. She just shrugged it off as I could let HR know if Jamie and I were together.”
“What do you want me to say? Are you looking for validation? Permission to fuck him? Want me to convince you it’s a bad idea? Or do you just need to vent?”
“All of it,” I sigh. “I need someone to be honest with me.”
“You know how complicated my own relationship is. I’m not attending events on his arm, we never have PDAs; we like tokeep everything quiet. It works for us. So, you have two choices: enjoy each other behind closed doors, or sacrifice not only your careers but potentially Olivia’s as well. How will it look if it gets out? He worked for Isaac, who—may I remind you—resigned so he could run off into the sunset with his one true love.” I can feel the air quotes from here. “Putting out that fire was a pain in my ass. Now, after Jamie worked for Isaac, he gets a huge promotion being a Senior Advisor for Olivia, and he just so happens to be fucking her Chief of Staff. If you want to be together, the only way it would work is if you two get married.”
“Married?” I squeak. “I’m not going to marry a man I hardly know.”
“Welcome to politics, babe. Nearly everyone I know marries for power or money. Most of the time, it’s both. Olivia has the potential to run for a higher office after a few terms as Governor, and the stakes will also be higher. So, pick your poison: secret lover or husband.”
I groan, hating how she’s right. “What would you do?”
“I’m fine keeping my love life private, so I’d pick door number one. But I also don’t have children of my own to worry about. If you fast-forward ten years or twenty, would you be happy being a single mom who had to hide her relationship? How will that affect your kids growing up? Jamie won’t get to attend their first soccer game or concert. He won’t get to be there when you send them off to college. The choice isn’t as easy as you think, but you don’t need to decide today. Have an open and honest conversation with him. He needs to understand the risks are greater than I think both of you realize.”
“Thank you for being a voice of reason. I think I just got caught up in the whirlwind of today. I’ve never been so”—I wave a dismissive hand even if she can’t see it—“not myself.”
“It probably doesn’t help that you’re in the first trimester. When my sister was pregnant with her twins, she was also a bit impulsive. Maybe try a journal? Paper, in case you get hacked, and figure out what you really want. And talk to him. He may be young, but a man doesn’t uproot his life like he did after a casual hook-up. He could’ve been hired by anyone. You didn’t hear this from me, but he was offered a job handling PR working for my brother-in-law who owns a bunch of casinos on the East Coast. Jamie could be a millionaire right now, but he’s in California with you. Just… something to think about.”
“Ugh, I take it back! You’re just as bad as Livy.”
“Am I? Or are you just forgetting you’re no longer twenty-six? Remember what it was like to meet someone, sparks fly, and you have sex in positions you only read about in books? You know, the good ol’ days. That’s what this guy is probably high on. He isn’t jaded by divorce or, you know, being a woman in a predominantly male field. What I would do to go back in time and live a little. Hell, he probably still believes Santa is real.”
A laugh bubbles out of me, remembering how life used to be before, well, life. “Thank you, truly. I needed that.”
“In all seriousness, my sister waited for years to be with the man she loves. If he’s worth it, he’ll wait for things to settle down. Figure out what you want, then be the badass woman I know you are and make a plan, then grab it by the balls.”
While we may not have known each other for long, Kristin feels like an older sister I never had. We say our goodbyes, and Ican’t wipe the smile off my face. Taking her advice, I take out a notebook and start a good old-fashioned pros and cons list, secretly hoping the pros outweigh the cons.
Pros
Sinfully handsome
Brilliant marketer
Amazing in bed
Best cuddler
Plant daddy
Great sense of humor
Cons
Too young
